Half of European Commission workers earn more than £71,500 a year

More than 10,000 workers directly employed by the European Commission - almost
half the total - earn more than £71,500 a year, a report has found.

European Commission President Jose Manuel BarrosoPhoto: REUTERS

By Martin Banks, Brussels

6:29PM BST 06 Jul 2011

The analysis also shows that an MEP’s salary and expenses is more than double that of a Westminster MP.

Publication of the findings comes at a time the Commission is seeking a seven per cent rise to the EU budget for the period 2014-2020, despite vehement opposition from several countries, including the UK.

It has sparked fresh demands for the pay of EU civil servants and MEPs to be frozen to bring the salaries more into line with their British equivalents.

According to the UK-based Open Europe think tank, of the 23,928 permanent and temporary EU officials directly employed by the Commission, approximately 10,240 earn over €80,000 (£71,500). In comparison, of the UK’s 527,490 civil servants, only 5,490 earn over £70,000.

The report, based on official Commission figures and data from the UK’s Office for National Statistics, shows that the EU currently spends £7.3bn per year on administrative costs, a figure which is set to soar in the coming years.

It says the starting salary of a permanent or temporary Commission official is £28,470, considerably higher than the average gross salary in the UK civil service of £22,850.

Some 35 top-graded Commission officials are paid over £181,000 per year while, on the next pay grade, 204 received at least £160,000 and 437 earn at least £141,000.

Compared with this, the report says only 130 of the UK’s 527,490 civil servants are paid more than £150,000.

The report says a “huge difference” exists between MEPs’ pay and that of MPs. In 2011, each MEP cost taxpayers £446,000 in salary and expenses compared with an MPs’ total of £214,000.

If the Commission’s budget proposals are approved, its administration costs will rise to £56bn for the seven years to 2020, or 6.1 per cent of the total EU budget

Stephen Booth, an Open Europe research director, said the report illustrates “how out of step” the EU is with current economic reality, adding, “To mirror what is happening in member states, the EU’s administrative budget should be frozen for the budget period.”

He said MEPs’ wages and expenditure should be cut by 10 per cent, saving £17m per year.

He added, “The Commission’s wage structure is clearly disproportionate and completely out of sync with national civil service pay across Europe. The number of officials on top-level salaries needs to be radically cut down.”

“Although the Commission has made some small steps to tackle bureaucracy, it has still proposed a new long-term EU budget where the share of administration costs is set to rise from 5.7 to 6.1 percent.”

Martin Callanan, Conservative leader in the European Parliament said, “With more than 1,000 EU officials earning more than the Prime Minister, the EU needs to change the comfortable French model of jobs for life for its Eurocrats. Any efforts to change the current conditions will be met with fierce resistance from the trade unions but the Commission must still take them on and ensure Eurocrats are not immune from the austerity measures being felt across the EU.”

Elsewhere, UKIP deputy leader Paul Nuttall, said, “The pay, perks and pensions of EU officials is ridiculously high. These people want 'more EU’ because it is good for their bank balance, all the while being harmful to national democracy, and expensive for the tax-payer.”

“Another scandal never mentioned is that UK civil servants, though paid by the British government, spend much of their time making sure that we implement EU law. UK tax-payers are paying for the EU twice.”

A Commission spokesman branded the report as "dishonest and manipulative" and disputed the salary claims.

The spokesman said, "This report makes no mention of our 6,000 contract agents, who are generally the lowest paid category of staff. One can only speculate why Open Europe chose to exclude them from their 'comparison'.

"Open Europe compares all civil servants at all levels in the UK with just officials and temporary agents in the Commission but comparing the Commission with national administrations is like comparing apples and pears.

"We are very small - less than half the size of Birmingham City Council - despite serving 500m European citizens in 27 member states and others across the world. We need to attract top talent, able to work in several languages and willing to move and uproot their families to another country. This means we must be able to attract people from places like the UK and Netherlands, where salaries for such people are high, as well as from relatively poorer countries like Latvia or Romania.

"Remuneration packages must take account of the need to attract such people, and they are already set at a level where the Commission is really struggling to attract certain job categories."

"A more appropriate comparison would be with diplomatic officials working abroad, international organisations and international law firms."